Isolation
by TheWeatherOutside
Summary: Gordon is stuck alone on one side of the island whilst his family is on the other, and there is a raging storm quickly getting between them. (Day 7 of Whumptober 2019 - Isolation)


Gordon really should have paid attention to the signs sooner.

Even his brothers had warned him not to stay out too long, but Gordon had just brushed them off and said that he would be back in time before the storm hit.

Gordon was really regretting his choice to go out for one last swim in the ocean before a thunderstorm hit Tracy Island, because now he was stuck on one side of the island whilst the villa and his family were on the other side, and there was a raging storm quickly getting between them.

He really had meant to get back before the storm arrived, but it had come quicker than John had predicted. Gordon had been dying to go out for a swim in something a bit bigger than the pool today, so he set off to his favourite beach with plenty of time to swim and get back to the villa before the storm should have arrived. It had barely even been cloudy when he started swimming, but it hadn't taken long before the water got choppier and the sky darker.

He had hurriedly thrown his shirt and shoes on once he got out of the water, but before he had started to make his way back, it had started raining. Now, he was quickly making his way along the trail that let back to the house. However, the ground was wet from the rain and he kept on slipping on the mud.

The wind was raging as well, the trees almost bending with the force of it. There were leaves and dirt being blown around Gordon, and it didn't take long for something to be blown right into his eye.

Gordon stumbled as whatever it was hit his eye. He went to rub at it, and thankfully found that whatever it had been had be blown straight out after. However, his vision had gone blurry as his eyes watered, and he couldn't see where he stepped.

He stumbled a little too far away from the trail and slipped on the mud as the ground fell away to a steep slope. He felt himself fall, and then he was tumbling down the wet, muddy slope.

It wasn't long before he came to an abrupt stop as he slammed into a tree trunk at the bottom. He heard a crack as his ribs slammed into the tree and couldn't help but cry out at the pain that erupted in his chest.

Gordon laid there for several moments, waiting for the pain to settle, before he tried to get up. He sat up when the pain became a bit more bearable. It still hurt, but he could manage.

Once he was upright, he checked over himself for any more injuries. His ankle hurt from where he had twisted it when he had initially slipped. He slowly stretched it out in front of him and saw that he had also grazed his knee on the way down, and now it was bleeding sluggishly through the dirt that now covered him.

He sat at the bottom of the small hill for a moment, slowly getting more and more drenched by the rain. He was now regretting that he didn't bring a comm or anything that he could use to contact his brothers. Now he would need to find his way back through the storm that was slowly getting worse. A moment later, thunder cracked overhead, and a flash of lightning was the motivation that he needed to get up again.

He used the tree to help him stand, and he leant against it as he looked up at the slope he had just fallen down. It had felt steeper falling down it, but now that he looked up at it, it didn't look that high. Still, the ground was slippery, and he knew that it would be a struggle to climb back up it, even if he wasn't injured.

He looked around and saw that there were a couple of trees that grew out of the side of the slope just a few metres away from where he stood. If he could shuffle over to them, he would be able to pull himself up using their branches.

It was painful and slow going, but eventually he was pulling himself over the edge of the slope. He had to sit at the top for a moment to get his breath back, and it was then that he remembered that he wasn't even halfway back to the house.

Gordon knew that just sitting there was going to get him nowhere, and if he didn't leave now the storm was just going to get worse. So, he pulled himself up again, and started his slow hobble back to the warmth of the villa.

* * *

Scott was pacing around the lounge as he watched the storm out of the tall windows. The rain was loud as it hit the glass, and he could barely hear John through the noise.

"He still not back yet?"

"No." Scott stopped in his pacing to turn towards John's hologram. "I'm worried. He said he's be back by now."

"The weather probably just makes it a bit harder for him to make it back quickly. He's probably just being careful," John reasoned.

"Gordon? Being careful?" Scott raised an eyebrow, and he saw John chuckle slightly as he realised that Scott was right. "Can you not just track him to where he is on the island?"

John turned away slightly as he looked at something that Scott couldn't see through the hologram.

"I can't find his exact location because he doesn't have his comm on him. The storm doesn't help with tracking him down either, but I can roughly see whereabouts the life signs are on the island." He paused, and then a moment later a hologram of the island popped up next to him. A few icons appeared throughout the house, a couple in the hanger, one or two others upstairs, but there was one that stood out from the others. It was a little distance away from the villa, about halfway from there to the beach that Gordon had gone to, and it wasn't moving.

"Why isn't it moving any closer?" Scott frowned, not liking what he was seeing.

"Hold on a moment. This is only the general area that he is in. In a few more seconds it should refresh and show him a bit closer."

They both watched the icon quietly for a moment, and then sure enough several seconds later the little icon moved a small fraction closer towards them.

"He's too slow," Scott said as he watched the icon steadily, but slowly, move along.

"You need to be a little more patient," John said calmly, seemingly not as concerned as Scott was, but Scott did know that he could be a little quick to fear the worst when it came to his brothers.

The next fifteen minutes were spent with the two of them watching Gordon as he grew steadily closer to the villa. Not much was said between the two of them, not until the little icon stopped not too far away from the house. They waited for it to refresh as he continued to move, but after a couple of minutes it stayed where it was.

"He's stopped." Scott took a step closer to the hologram to get a better look, and sure enough the icon of Gordon still had not moved.

"He could be taking a break." Even though John was still trying to stay calm and come up with a logical reason, it was obvious that he was growing concerned as well.

Scott didn't even think about it a moment longer.

"I'm going to get him." He turned to head out, but John's voice made him pause.

"Make sure you take a jacket."

Scott looked at him, a little surprised that he hadn't tried to stop Scott from going out into the storm as well. But the fact that John hadn't stopped him meant that he was also worried about Gordon, and when John was worried, something was usually very wrong.

Scott gave him a curt nod, and then hurried towards where they kept their thicker coats, which they rarely ever needed to use seeing as they lived on a tropical island. They mainly got used for when they headed back to the mainland, or for storms like this. He grabbed two- one for himself and one for Gordon, and then he was heading out to the trail that Gordon had gone down.

* * *

Gordon wasn't sure how far he had walked so far or how long there was left to go. The storm seemed to make the journey a whole lot longer. He was pretty sure that he was close to the villa, but it was hard to see through the rain that the wind was harshly blowing into his face.

The wind was so strong that he actually stumbled a bit as it forced him to the side. He limped over to the closest tree and leant against it for a moment as he tried to rub the rain out of his eyes.

He slicked his soggy hair back out of his face and tried to squint up towards where the house was, but he still couldn't see anything past the trees that were blowing fiercely from the wind. He wasn't even totally sure he was going the right way. The only thing that had kept him heading in this direction was the fact that he was pretty sure the trail only lead to and from the beach, and didn't fork off into any other direction.

Now that Gordon had stopped, he didn't know if he could start again. The cold had numbed the pain in his ribs, but with every step he took his ankle hurt more and more, and his knee stung as the rain mixed with the dirt and blood. He didn't know how much further he could go. He may be able to reach the house, slowly, but for now he at least needed a rest. Not that standing under a tree in the middle of a storm was the best thing to do in that situation, but the risk of being struck by lightning was worth it right now. Plus, if he stopped holding onto the tree for support, he was sure that the wind was just going to sweep him away.

He stepped up a little closer towards the tree and closed his eyes for a moment. Maybe if he waited here for a moment the storm will blow over, or someone would come and find him. And then he would be inside where it was dry and warm and he could sleep because he felt so, so tired.

Yeah, that'd be nice.

* * *

"Gordon!" Scott yelled out as he made his way through the storm, although he wasn't sure it was of any use. The wind was loud and carried away any sound that he made. Even if Gordon was two feet away, he wasn't sure that he would have heard him.

Still, he tried again. Just in case.

"_Gordon!_"

Several minutes had past, and still he was unsuccessful at finding his little brother. He could understand why it had taken Gordon so long to make his way back, the wind kept trying to push and pull him in different directions, and the heavy rain made it hard to see further than a few feet in front of him. It also didn't help that the storm had made his surroundings all dark and gloomy. It was only the late afternoon, but with how dark it was you would have thought that it was almost night.

"Gordon!" He yelled again. He was sure that he was roughly in the same area that they last saw Gordon on the map, if the distance he felt he'd made from the house was anything to go by. He made sure to look all around him as he walked on in case Gordon had strayed from the path.

"Gordon! Gord-"

He could see something up ahead, and he hurried forward as fast as the slippery mud would allow. Then he saw it.

No matter what any one of them would say about Gordon's choice in fashion, Scott had never been more thankful for Gordon's love of bright colours than he was in that moment. As through the pouring rain, he could see Gordon's bright and colourful swim shorts that Gordon had decided to wear that day come into view.

He ran over to his brother, not even caring about whether he fell over or not anymore. When he reached him, he got a better view of the state his brother was in.

Gordon was leaning against a tree, and he was covered in mud. Scott also noticed how he was favouring one side and his right foot was almost hovering over the ground like he didn't want to put any weight on it, and he was bleeding.

"Gordon!" It seemed that Gordon hadn't even noticed Scott was there until he called his name, and Gordon turned abruptly towards him like he had made him jump.

"Scotty! What brings you out here?" Gordon said, sounding too casual for the situation that he was in.

"You." Scott had tucked Gordon's coat inside his own to keep it as dry as possible. He unzipped his jacket and quickly pulled it out. "What happened?"

"I fell. We should really invest in some railings or something."

Scott helped slip the jacket on Gordon and grew more concerned at how cold Gordon felt as his hands brushed up against Gordon's skin. He zipped the jacket up and pulled the hood over Gordon's head. Gordon was already soaked through, so it wouldn't do that much to keep him dry anymore, but with the way Gordon curled into it, it was obvious that it was at least warming him up a bit.

"Well, at least I can tell John that he was wrong." Scott hooked his arm around Gordon's waist and Gordon threw his own arm over Scott's shoulder, and they began their slow hobble back to the villa.

"John? Wrong? I don't believe you."

"Yeah, he said you were being careful," Scott said, and he could see the astounded look cross over Gordon's face.

"Hey! I _was_ being careful! I didn't build the ditch I fell down!"

"Well, maybe you should take some better shoes with you next time."

"You're one to talk." Gordon pointed down to the shoes that Scott had just been wearing around the house before he came out here, and Scott could already feel the squelch of each step as they soaked through with water. He didn't want to give Gordon that satisfaction, though.

"I didn't have time to change them, I was too busy coming out here to save you!"

"Suuure," Gordon drawled out, and true to his fashion, Gordon still found a way to laugh even when he was cold and in pain. Scott just shook his head, he would never understand how Gordon's mind worked.

* * *

Gordon felt a thousand times better now that he had had a shower and was finally in some warm, dry clothes. As soon as they had gotten back, Virgil had also bandaged him up and gave him some painkillers so that his injuries had been reduced to just a dull ache.

Even through his thick hoodie he had thrown on, he still shivered slightly, so he made his way out of his room and downstairs in the hopes of finding something warm.

As he reached the bottom of the steps, he heard someone shuffling around in the living room. He limped around the corner, and found that it was Scott, who had also changed into something dry and comfortable. He was placing something onto the round coffee table in the centre of the room, and when he heard Gordon approaching, he stood up and spun around to face him.

"Gordon! Are you feeling better?"

"Much." Gordon hobbled a bit closer to see what was on the table. "Whatcha got there?"

Scott turned back to the table, seeming excited at whatever it was. "Soup, and also some hot cocoa. Thought you'd want something warm."

Of course Scott would know exactly what he wanted, but Gordon still grimaced at what he heard.

"Who made it?" He asked hesitantly, really hoping he wouldn't hear what he thought he would.

"I did," Scott smiled, knowing exactly what Gordon was thinking. Gordon visibly relaxed at that. Scott's cooking was a lot better than their Grandma's.

Knowing that the food was safe to eat, Gordon eagerly took a seat on one of the sofas. He noticed that Scott had also brought down a fluffy blanket, and Gordon could almost cry as he snuggled under it and grabbed the tray of food.

"Scotty, I love you," he said, although it was muffled around the spoonful of soup that he had scooped into his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Scott sat down on one of the chairs next to him and crossed his arms as he leant back. "Just remember that the next time you decide to head out into a storm when I tell you not to."

"Don't worry, I'll listen to you next time."

They both knew that that wasn't true. Scott would still worry, and Gordon would still continue to do things that Scott would tell him not to, but neither of them mentioned that right then. Instead, they sat and enjoyed each other's company as Gordon enjoyed his warm soup, and Scott basked in the feeling that all his brothers were safe again, until another one of them found a way to give him a few more grey hairs.


End file.
